Ever since I became a father, I have to look at everything more carefully. The most anxiety-inducing thing is still imported milk powder — I have to stare at the packaging for a long time: is this really genuine or fake? Is the customs sticker from the original manufacturer? Is the milk source really from the Netherlands or somewhere else?

To ensure peace of mind, I’d love to be able to look up the origin, transportation route, and storage conditions of every can of milk powder. In fact, banks’ anxiety in supply chain finance is no less than mine. The problem is they can’t see the true flow of goods, so they lack the confidence to lend to businesses — what’s missing is an intermediary that can project the real-world truth onto the online world.

The APRO project happens to be doing this. It’s a decentralized oracle system — seemingly simple but actually useful — giving everything an ID card. Its core goal is to continuously deliver trustworthy, secure external data to blockchain applications. For example, verifying the authenticity of the logistics tracking code on the milk powder jar.

Traditional traceability is just a QR code game; anyone can print fake QR codes. But APRO introduces something more robust — AI-driven verification mechanisms. Its AI nodes analyze the entire logistics route for reasonableness, check the consistency of storage temperature data, and ensure that each piece of data can withstand scrutiny from the source.

For example: a can claiming to be transported via cold chain from start to finish. If at some point the temperature suddenly rises by 5°C, this dual-layer network protection system will immediately trigger an alarm. The abnormal information is directly recorded on-chain, marked with a risk label, so anyone querying this can of milk later can see this warning.

This process cleverly combines off-chain and on-chain worlds: massive IoT data is first filtered and cleaned off-chain, then the refined core information is sent to the blockchain. This approach ensures data authenticity while preventing the blockchain from lagging due to excessive data volume.

Currently, APRO’s coverage is quite broad — including crypto assets, traditional stocks, property rights, in-game data, and even complete traceability information for my imported milk powder. The potential of this oracle system to empower supply chain finance still needs further exploration.